This may be the wrong place to look for maturity

I TOOK a look at Sports Viewpoint on Page 2 to see who was writing nasty letters these days about Plaschke, always a great way to start off a Saturday morning -- only to find Jeff Calzada from Monterey Park letting me have it.

Mr. Calzada didn’t like the column I wrote about Kobe Bryant the Savior and said he was not going to read any more of my articles until I matured. And so there.

I’m upset, of course, because I have no idea how Mr. Calzada is going to know when I’ve matured if he’s not going to read my articles. But frankly, it’s hard to argue with his criticism.

There wasn’t a day that went by that my dad wasn’t telling me, “Mister, it’s time you grow up.” For a while there, I thought my first name was Mister.

It continued in school, the nuns always asking the question, “My son, when are you going to grow up?” and then cracking me over the knuckles with a ruler when I’d tell them I didn’t think I could be their son. Years later when I heard a number of nuns had given up their habits, I thought that meant they were no longer smacking kids around.

I’ve even got my own family now telling me to stop being so immature. Just the other day I was sitting in the movie theater, reaching for some of the wife’s popcorn and was

slightly off target and she thought I was getting fresh. She snapped in a whisper, “Grow up.”

For years people told me I’d have to grow up before it’d be OK to get fresh with anyone, and here I am 56, married for 34 years and a little worried that I might need a prescription to get fresh by the time I do grow up.

PART OF the problem is that when I began writing about sports for a living on a typewriter, it was at a time when other journalists referred to the sports section of the newspaper as the toy department. A great place for a kid to work.

We were told that if we ever did grow up, we might get the chance to move to news and then cover things that really matter.

Check out a USC message board, though, sometime and tell those people sports really doesn’t matter. Sports now matters more than almost anything in the world -- to some people.

I know this because Jim Nantz will remind us how much courage it takes for a golfer to go for the green, or Rex Hudler will talk to us about Robb Quinlan’s do-or-die at-bat in August. Phil Jackson will speak from on high and everyone will write down everything he says as if it really is a sermon on the mount.

UCLA lost a regular-season game to Oregon a few weeks ago and Arron Afflalo said, “I never thought I’d feel this low.” And I laughed, just like when I heard people were sending get-well cards to Barbaro, who is probably going to need reading glasses now that he has read so many.

When Kobe set out to win this year’s Mr. Congeniality award, treating all his teammates as if they really had talent, thereby setting the game up so he could save it in the end, that struck me as funny. I think it’s hilarious that people will pay top prices for Lakers tickets, then settle for only a couple of dynamic quarters from the game’s top scorer all in the name of winning, when the only thing that really matters in sports is escaping for a few fun-filled hours.

The Lakers weren’t supposed to be good enough to make the playoffs last season but did, and with Kobe leading the league in scoring.

But we’re supposed to think we’re all better off now when Kobe gets his teammates involved because that’s the way the Lakers almost beat Phoenix in the playoffs.

I find all this very amusing, but that’s because I find sports to be more humorous than serious most of the time -- probably because I cover a lot of Dodgers games. But the Lakers now have lost seven games to the NBA’s worst teams this season, which is no laughing matter if wins mean everything to a team.

But then I ask, how many of those games did they lose because Kobe waited too long before taking over?

I TOOK a closer look at Mr. Calzada’s letter, and from what I can tell, he thought my opinion about Bryant was ridiculous and therefore different from his own, which makes it pretty obvious then that I’m the one who is immature.

Hard for me to argue, and it would probably be deemed childish to do so.

I’ve already got my own children telling me to grow up, and I’m working on it, although I just can’t seem to win with everyone.

A number of people from San Diego, for example, e-mailed recently to say I was immature for celebrating the Chargers’ early departure from the playoffs -- and writing “ha, ha, ha” only 17 times in a column.

Even when I show restraint, I get criticized.

WHO HAS been the bigger bust to date? Vladimir Radmanovic or Tim Thomas? Right now the nod goes to Radmanovic.

The Clippers thought they had a deal with Radmanovic, lost him to the Lakers and signed Thomas instead. Radmanovic, who fell out of favor with Jackson, has made 40.4% of his shots, while going 35.3% from three-point range. Thomas has made 40.9% overall and 35.2% from long range.

Thomas, though, has averaged seven more minutes of play a game and three more points -- put them together and it brings back memories of Devean George.

THE CLIPPERS have no interest in trading Shaun Livingston, but every time he’s on the court, it looks as if they are playing four against five. Stay healthy, Sam Cassell.

TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Alexander Baiedi:

“Are you joking? Do you really prefer ‘fun’ or Kobe yanking up shots over a team-oriented plan of attack that leads to more wins? This is much funner than last year, don’t you think?”

Good question. The Lakers have four more wins than they had at this time last year; is that a fair swap -- knowing Kobe will never go for 81 again?

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.